This study examines correlations among three factors that reportedly affect adjustment to military life: personality traits, social support and stress management. The study also attempts to validate the structural model to enhance understanding of the...
This study examines correlations among three factors that reportedly affect adjustment to military life: personality traits, social support and stress management. The study also attempts to validate the structural model to enhance understanding of the process of adjusting to the military life.
The subjects of the study were 477 listed soldiers from private to sergeant currently stationed and serving in an army post in Gangwon-Do, Korea.
The following tools were used for this study. Based on self-inventory questionnaires, evaluations were made regarding self esteem, locus of control, social support, coping strategies, adaptation to military life and depression.
Reliability of each criterion was evaluated based on reliability examination, correlations among parameters were analyzed, and the structural equation model was validated to verify the research model. The compiled data were analyzed with statistics programs SPSS 15.0 and AMOS 7.0.
The results of the study can be summarized as follows.
First, personality traits such as internal control and self respect have significant influence on social support and taking proactive actions. In other words, personality traits encourage individuals to seek social support and take active measures according to circumstances.
Second, personality traits affect adjusting to military life through social support and active measures, two factors indicated in this study to act as parameters between personality traits and adaptation.
This study emphasizes intervention such as establishment of a social support system and training for taking necessary actions as limitations of studies dealing with personality traits and adaptation. Since the subjects of this study were chosen from an army based in a single location for convenience' sake, it may be difficult to generalize the results to analyze the entire military.
Furthermore, evaluations made based on self-inventory questionnaires may have been affected by social desirability and the reactions could have been subject to distortion. It is therefore necessary to make developments to overcome such limitations in methodology.